It’s amazing Hawking can be so smart by being so stupid.
That is my observation as well.
These comments: “When people ask me if a god created the universe, I tell them that the question itself makes no sense. Time didn’t exist before the big bang, so there is no time for god to make the universe in. It’s like asking directions to the edge of the earth; The Earth is a sphere; it doesn’t have an edge; so looking for it is a futile exercise.”
are not the mark of an intelligent knowledgeable person.